Is there a better case study in brazen hypocrisy than the ongoing crisis in Crimea? Not just on the part of the loathsome Vladimir Putin, who defends Syria's sovereignty while happily violating Ukraine's, but on the part of western governments, too.

Syria lies broken, bloodied, but not quite dead. Faint flickers of national life before the civil war remain, but these are fast being snuffed out; victims of territorial conflict, over which existing democracy and the soothing voice of international arbitration can exert no influence.

On his first overseas trip as president in 2009, Barack Obama was asked by a foreign journalist whether he subscribed to American exceptionalism, the idea that America has a unique role to champion freedom and democracy...

Mohammed, a teacher from Syria who lives in Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, is participating in the Education for All Global Monitoring Report's #TeacherTuesday campaign. His daily struggle to help Syrian refugee children underlines the need to support teachers in difficult situations - and to make education a more central part of humanitarian efforts in conflict zones.

Those who have become used to my written reflections over the past few years may well have wondered if I were going through an extended dry period. After all, my own epektasis web-site has been eerily quiet for the past ten weeks!

Several MPs referred favourably to Ukrainian communities and organisations in their constituencies in a recent Commons debate on Russian actions against Ukraine. Such links with voters, who may be seen as newsworthy locally and electorally important, makes MPs more attentive.

Three years ago, the world watched in shock as Syria slowly descended into bitter conflict. Once thriving communities have been utterly destroyed. Nine million people are now in need of humanitarian assistance, with their future looking perilous and uncertain. The scale of the humanitarian crisis which results from a conflict of this kind can be overwhelming. But we cannot let ourselves forget its human face.

"If I am not a student, I am nothing." Hany's home is a wooden frame and plastic sheets. Thick carpets line the floor and long cushions serve as sofas. A wood stove offers warmth. A TV connected to satellite brings news from Syria.

The crisis engulfing Crimea is a grave one. Vladimir Putin's armies have cut the region off from the rest of the nation, and are insisting on an illegal referendum in order to give elusive legitimacy to a brazen act of aggression. Now is not the time for the West to take options off the table - even rather unpalatable ones.

The Syrian people have suffered more than most can possibly imagine. March 15th will mark the third anniversary of this barbaric war on civilians and a campaign is gathering to both show solidarity and inspire political change. Three years of failure by the world to end the appalling suffering.

In the days leading up to 15th March, the third anniversary of the start of the conflict, people all over the world will be holding vigils to remind their governments that giving up on Syria is not an option.

Noam Chomsky is probably the most influential leftist on the planet right now. So when he argues the US "has shown no indication it wants the rebels to win in Syria", as he did recently in an interview with the Voice of Russia, his opinion carries a lot of weight amongst progressives...

As the war in Syria enters its fourth year, it's easy to lose hope. Even if there is a peace deal in the next few months - which, after the disappointments of the Geneva peace talks, seems as unlikely as ever - how will people recover, rebuild, and achieve any sort of reconciliation? How can Syria be a functioning country again?

Three years ago, a group of school-children scrawled political graffiti on a wall in the remote Syrian town of Daraa. Their subsequent arrest and torture was the spark that ignited the civil war now ravaging Syria and devastating the lives of so many of its 22 million people. This civil war is now thought to have spawned the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Imagine the horrors of healthcare in a warzone: children having limbs amputated because of a lack of medical supplies and equipment to treat their wounds. Patients knocked out with iron bars, rather than face an operation without anaesthetic. A newborn baby dying in an incubator because of power-cuts... For millions of people inside Syria - this is the reality of their lives now.

When I visited a refugee registration centre in Lebanon recently, I heard stories of young children who have been through shocking experiences. Syrian boys and girls have fled conflict, lost their homes and watched friends and family members being killed. And now these children are facing another threat - the often hidden horror of sexual violence.